The Basketball Section

It's May 5th, 2006. The Sacramento Kings have just been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, falling to the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in six games. It's the second year in a row where the Kings have been bounced in the first round, and the heartbreak of their controversial loss in the Western Conference Finals four years prior still lingers. Only Mike Bibby and coach Rick Adelman, but the additions in the last four years have proven successful enough to continue to make the playoffs, albeit with less success. The strongest addition is Ron Artest, a controversial yet talented player who won Defensive Player of the Year, was selected as an all-star, and made the All-NBA 3rd Team two seasons ago, but had missed just about the entire previous season after his involvement in the infamous Malice at the Palace. The additions, along with Artest, included other players like Brad Miller, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bonzi Wells, and a young Kevin Martin. There's a solid base t...

How hard is it to score 50 points in an NBA game? Well, let's look at it like this. There are three ways to score in basketball; one-point free throws, two-point field goals, or three-point field goals. Since there's no guarantee you're going to get fouled, let's ignore free throws for right now. The most efficient way to do that is to hit enough lay-ups or close-range shots to hit 50. That's 25 made shots, which isn't impossible, but not easy. In NBA history, only three players have ever made 25 shots in one game. But let's say you want to hit 50 quickly, then the three-ball is more useful for this. 3 is more than 2, and it's more fun. Well, you'd need to make 17 threes to reach 50. The most anybody has ever made in an NBA game is 14 by Klay Thompson. So yeah, you'd need to be a God-tier three-point shooter to cross 50 on threes alone. But it doesn't end there. You're likely not going to shoot 25 and hit all 25. You're likely going t...